This invention pertains to a shopping cart equipped with a cupholder, which projects into the shopping cart. The cupholder has a collapsible, cup-holding body, which, if empty, does not prevent nesting of a similar cart into the shopping cart equipped with the cupholder.
As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,077 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,306, it is known to mount a cupholder to a transverse handle of the shopping cart. The cupholders exemplified therein employ metal cup-holding elements. As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,091 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,058, it is known to mount a cupholder so as to project into a shopping cart.
As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,091, supra, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,162, it is known to make a cupholder from a polymeric material. The cupholder exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,162 is mountable to a stadium or arena seat, at a bottom wall of the cupholder, and is deformable.
This invention provides a shopping cart comprising structures movable between a first set of relative positions, in which a child seat is defined, and a second set of relative positions, in which the shopping cart is adapted to receive a nesting cart. Those structures, which are conventional in a shopping cart, may include wire panels, polymeric panels, or both. Those structures include a gate pivotable between a lowered position, in which the gate is positioned in the first set of relative positions of the movable structures, and an elevated position, in which the gate is positioned in the second set of relative positions of the movable structures. This invention contemplates that the cupholder comprises a cup-holding body, which is mounted to one of the movable structures, such as the gate, so that the cup-holding body projects into the shopping cart, where the child seat is defined, in the first set of relative positions of the planar structures.
This invention contemplates that the cup-holding body is made from a rubbery material enabling the cup-holding body to collapse to a collapsed condition, in which the cup-holding body, if empty, does not prevent nesting of a similar cart into the shopping cart having the cupholder, and enabling the cup-holding body to return to an uncollapsed condition, in which the cup-holding body can hold a cup.
Preferably, the cup-holding body has a lateral wall, which can assume a frusto-conical shape when not collapsed. Preferably, moreover, the cup-holding body has two sets of fins projecting inwardly from the lateral wall so as to be diametrically opposed when the lateral wall assumes the frusto-conical shape. Preferably, each fin has an upper end and a lower end and tapers between the upper end, which projects more from the lateral wall, and the lower end, which projects less from the lateral wall. Preferably, the cup-holding body has two partial, lower walls spaced from each other by a gap, which facilitates collapsing of the cup-holding body and through which any spilled contents can drain from the cup-holding body.
Preferably, the structure mounting the cup-holding body comprises horizontal wires and the shopping cart further comprises a rigid part affixed to the lateral wall of the cup-holding body and positioned on a given side of said wires, a rigid part positioned on an opposite side of said wires, and means for fastening the rigid parts to each other with said wires clamped between the rigid parts. At least one of the rigid parts may be thus recessed so as to accommodate said wires and, preferably, both rigid parts are recessed so as to accommodate said wires.